Resident Evil 4

The game's fine. It's not bad by any means. But holy fuck is the endless dickriding bizarre.

RE4 original is one of the best games ever. I was already dubious of where the remake would go, since I am of the firm belief that a remake should either deviate wildly (Re2 to Re2make) or be a 1 for 1 translation with some minor QoL (Dead Space Remake).

This game isn't either of these; gameplay is different but not really different enough, and it's just way less responsive than the original. Writing is different but it's just less interesting because Leon is far more angsty and brooding and has way less quips, and less of his quips land than they did before.

The game is also absurdly easy in comparison. Despite having problems where I would often get chain grabbed because the kicks have much smaller area of effects and have basically no i-frames, I have yet to die a single time, because the game SHOWERS you in healing items. I'm playing with the deluxe edition bonuses so my pesetas are through the roof, but if we're generous that's likely about ~30% of my total income and I hadn't even gotten to del lago before I had bought everything in the shop and was just waiting to get new guns worth upgrading. Except, wouldn't you know it, they made it so selling upgraded gear back isn't throwing away money because you get something like 95-99% of the investment back. Welcome change; don't know why we also needed a shit ton of money on top of that.

There's really 1 big thing that's holding this game back for me; the insistence on fluid animations that blend together seamlessly. A lot of modern games have started doing this for the sake of immersion, and when your gameplay compliments it, it's great! I don't care to play Red Dead 2 because the gameplay looks absolutely mind-numbingly easy, but with what they're trying to do storytelling wise and worldbuilding wise, every bit counts. But RE4 is not trying to tell a story or build the world. It doesn't need Leon to move like he's drunk to facilitate immersion, it doesn't need to whip your camera around any time an enemy uses the only threatening attack in the game - a grab, it doesn't need to make me stand around with my thumb up my ass every time Hunnigan calls, letting me walk around at a snails pace but not able to interact with anything, etc. Just give me cutscenes! Let the animations play out from the third person perspective! I do not care to watch the same closeup animation of Leon knifing a ganados every 10 seconds when instead you could just let me look around and take stock of the rest of the fight.

Every other complaint I have is "Why is this even here?" Why do you have a gacha machine that dispenses trinkets at random, that can give duplicates, but which ultimately aren't integral to how you play, and who's bonuses primarily only govern crafting and buying, so you can just swap them out at any merchant to minmax value as if you had infinite slots? Why have stealth as an option at all when it's the most anemic stealth system I've ever seen? What real purpose does remixing random aspects like rescuing the dog serve if it all leads to the same place anyway and all you'll get out of it is the "I clapped when I saw ____" crowd doing their thing? All in all there's just a ton of added fluff that kept me going "... ok? but why?" and there really isn't an answer beyond the fact that RE4 didn't really need a remake of this scale, but they wanted to look like they were doing something of value, so they just put in as many benign changes as they could to pretend.

A good attempt at a REimagining but not without problems.

Graphics are stunning, especially in HDR. The village continues to be the strongest part of both games.

The new coat of paint starts to wear thin the more I played: the merchant is annoyingly talkative, the "side-quests" feel a bit out of place, arbitrary points of no return sour parts of the game. Nearly every boss fight is worse - the same issue as RE7/8 with "cinematic" set pieces with gimmicks and forced interactions, instead of actually good design (glares at Saddler in particular. His new design is sick though.)

Other random additions make it in like stealth that you can use once in a while, and parrying. Ridiculous parrying... you'd be surprised. You can parry a chainsaw. You can also parry thrown axes. And molotovs.. and yes, dynamite too. Still not impressed? Try it on a snake!

They replaced my beloved Gatling Man with a cowheaded automatic crossbow man. Maybe the story department was trying a more serious approach, but when you add the most comical looking, clown-behavior, least deadly enemy types in replacement for JJ, I think the gameplay department was not on the same page.

Improving RE4 is an impossible task, anyways. But with all of these changes that line more with the original's sassy super-cop beats up farmers than RE4make's "darker and serious" tones; I wonder why they didn't keep most of the original's one-liners. They threw in a few from the original but without the charm as the antagonists are flatly boring; those made sense in the original because of the repeated back-and-forth quipping, especially with Salazar. RE2/3makes have plenty of campy-ass one liners, so... why the change?

Gameplay wise I'm a bit in the middle; RE4 is very formulaic in the way you play: headshot crits or kneecap TMP and knife. RE4make is more third-person RE2make but the end result kind of is the same: do the same thing but wait until the stun procs, then go stab them while they are down (scripted of course). It feels less urgent and is easier overall.

Most annoying is the new accuracy system which is an absolute slog, especially in the shooting gallery. Besides being less immersive because you now have a Counter-Strike crosshair on your screen, there is random inaccuracy and a bloom system that I think someone who's never played a game designed: it penalizes you both for moving (fine), and moving the crosshair (why?).

As a result many guns, namely the broken butterfly, tommy gun, and handcannon, lose their character and are relegated to just-another-blaster. I stuck with the laser SG09 exclusive pretty much the entire game, benefit of never running out of pistol ammo.

Pour one out for the broken butterfly, by the way. I like that the merchant has the same "it's about reloading" voice line but it has a realistically mundane animation. Why keep the line if you don't remaster the original's sick reload?

Level design has the same misgivings as the original. Village remains the best section, the new Castle has some of the best and worst parts of the game, and the island actually I think is a step backwards. The best part of the island was the regeneradors and spooky-ass interactions, like the "oh shit" moment in the cryo room (plus the laser room, but it does return in Separate Ways). The streamlining makes sense if we're getting rid of the slog - excavator ride, linear filler sections - but those are kept.

Ex. in cutting the excavator ride: they just replaced it with something just as bad, the wrecking ball.

One bonus is that Separate Ways is a complete overhaul and vastly better than the original. Mercenaries is still very fun, albeit quite easy, so unlocking the handcannon is easily achieved - and if anything, lines up fine as it's not the do-everything-gun anymore.

I could write more but I think everyone's gotten the point. There's a lot of "little things" that are missed which makes me wonder if the remake team truly understood why and what made RE4 so good.

It's still a fun game with many improved parts, and it has its moments. But I'm not shaking the feeling that they were more interested in throwing the kitchen sink at it in an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle again, instead of remaking it into its "own thing".

I had never played the original, but after having a blast with RE2 remake and Village, I tried this. After nearly 50 hours and three playthroughs, I was left speechless.

Great and tense atmosphere, never uses cheap jump scares. Like in any RE game, the characters are silly, but in a good way. The level design is top-notch, although the puzzles are not as fun as RE2.

Gameplay is smooth and the learning curve is adequate.

The best survival horror game I've ever played.

I love the original version of this game; I didn’t think it needed any improvements until I checked out this remake which somehow proved me wrong as it manages to smooth over what few kinks the original had for a more flawless experience.

Basically, everything amazing about the original is accounted for here so you can read what I wrote about Resident Evil 4 for more details about what I love about it so much. The improvements are that the story is much better written to line up with the horror elements of the previous instalments as opposed to the action driven tone of the original, this means that Ashley comes off less of a damsel in distress which is a typical troupe of action flicks and instead makes her a more valuable companion for Leon throughout the story. Ada is also more likeable here as her feelings she developed for Leon in the re 2 remake seem to have remained in this entry, making her protection of Leon make more sense than it did originally which she seemed to only do for convenience. There's a ton more activities to accomplish in the campaign as well, making an already action-packed adventure will much more exciting. Everything else is about the same save for Luis surviving for much longer in the story which I felt didn't make much of a difference in the story aside from making him a more interesting companion than before.

It's a fantastic remake that puts other modern gaming to shame, it tells a compelling story and delivers fun action for gamers that's bound to connect with anyone interested in the franchise.

Continuing from the two previous remakes, Resident Evil 4 (2023) added a parry function to deflect enemy attacks, but innovated little else from the same engine from 2019, and is in fact mostly homogeneous to the last two remakes. In terms of aesthetic, the cutscenes and characters are more broody and neutralized compared to their originals, which results in a duller narrative experience. Even less impressive is that the previous remakes were absolutely transformative from the blocky 90s originals, what with the fluid new gameplay making their campaigns more action-oriented, offering viscerally different experiences. But because Resident Evil 4 from 2005 was already an action-oriented third-person shooter, this one is the least transformative of the Resident Evil remakes so far.
As for the technical updates to the "remake" 2019 engine, most improve the flow of action at the expense of losing the suspense from the more rigid rail-shooter style (the directional inventory system to skip the briefcase tile-navigation, and mobility while aiming). But some of these are appreciated, such as the more practical reward system for the target range minigame, where keychains add passive perks to the gameplay (higher chances for enemy item drops, efficacy of healing items, store discounts, etc.) rather than pointless character models and money. There is also an increase of Merchant sidequests, which boil down to shooting random items or fighting harder NPCs, motivating extra attention to level design that the original only offered at one sequence near the beginning. And though the stealth mechanics are limited, the Bolt Thrower weapon acts as a convenient silent pistol with ammo you can retrieve after shooting, and also replaces the lame Mine Thrower from the original.
On the subject of stealth mechanics, it seemed like an ideal imitation of the Last of Us games was the developers' intent, but the level design doesn't offer much opportunity to exploit stealth tactics consistently. There is a silent takedown option that is useful in sparse times, but the placement of enemies is clearly aimed at making action break out more than anything.
But perhaps the most pointless aspect of the game is the return of the briefcase inventory, because its only purpose is to serve nostalgia. The directional inventory button replaces the urgency of item organization as in the original, which was a change made to smooth out the flow of changing weapons in action. Though navigating it is rigid and clunky in the original, this stiffness is actually what emphasized the importance of how the items in your case were organized, so you could arrange them all by your own sense of easy access after hitting the pause button and knowing where you set the grenades, herbs, shotgun, etc. This is not necessary when the directional inventory already provides that easy access.
Although it may be tedious and superficial to dwell on, the distracting inferiorities in the portrayals of many characters still prevail among my biggest gripes.
Saddler has lost the cadence of Bela Lugosi, and in fact just speaks slow and low to sound ominous, but often just comes across as a simple man, not threatening at all.
Despite her blatant objectification in the original, Ashley is sexualized more in this version. She is after all "of age" in this version, a sorority girl instead of a high schooler. Because her demeanor is more graceful, warm, and competent, Leon's compliments to her implicate the "you're so mature for your age" shipping signal, doubled by the change of Leon's promise to her at the end, where his casual rejection to Ashley's romantic offer in the original is rephrased as her proposing that Leon could continue working with her as a bodyguard (being with her always, implying a relationship), and Leon's response is not no, but maybe.
Ada's outfit is more practical, but her voice may be the most lifeless of them all.
Much of the humor and childish insanity of Salazar, including the fun back-and-forths between him and Leon, have been lost.
Krauser's voice is like a South Park parody of how a dark, raspy bad guy is supposed to sound.
The Merchant talks way too much as you browse items.
Altogether though, the game is still superior to the 3 remake, as the campaign is much longer. And of course, the priority of action mechanics does improve upon the original's Mercenaries minigame.

For most of my life, I've considered Resident Evil 4 the greatest game of all time. More recently I've considered some competitors, but everytime I come back to RE4 I can't put it down. I learn more about it, I discover new tricks, I repeat old ones. There's a million reasons to love the original but I think one of the key one's is how replayable it is. Since I first played RE4 over a decade ago, I've come back to it at least 10 times to run through again and mix it up a bit. So when I saw a game which still played phenomenally well getting a remake I was skeptical.

Resident Evil 4 (2023) is a great game, but is in no way better then the original. The major problem comes with the task of remaking this game. While the Resident Evil 2 remake had a lot of freedom and flexibility to craft it's own identity due to playing very differently from the original, RE4 still plays the same. If anything it plays worse, the bloom on guns feels terrible, the way the gun kicks doesn't have the oomph it once had, and moving while shooting drastically lessens the tension. The addition of parrying is awesome and leads to some tense moments, but the added stealth feels mostly pointless. Ultimately the gunplay has changes that lead to a less scary and less fun experience. This can be best felt in how it takes multiple shots to stun an enemy. Yes this is in place to balance the new mechanics, but it doesn't feel like Resident Evil God Hand edition like RE4 does because of it.

Changes are made to the story, and sure some of them are fun. Luis' new scummy personality is a fun change and Ashley feels like a human, but otherwise why? None of the villains' are built up in the same way they are in the original. Krauser and Ada feel like parodies of themselves. Hunnigan barely appears.

Most importantly though, where is the charm? The game tries to be campy like the original and with the exception of Leon shooting the villains mid-monologue and maybe one or two other things, it just feels forced. The jokes feel like they're trying to be weird rather than just being weird on it's own. I let this game sit a bit before writing this review, and it just hasn't stuck with me as much. I can't name a single line on the level of "your right hand comes off". The remaking of this game just feels too much of the same which is originally why I mentioned before why I was skeptical of this remake. Why remake something which does nearly everything right?

It may sound like I'm railing on this game, but I did still really enjoy it. The weapon balancing is nailed just like the original and leads to unique builds. The combat while not as good as the original still does a good job (the foggy room at the start of a castle is a perfect highlight of this). The soundtrack while not as memorable is ominous. And while the locations aren't as memorable, it's nice to see such a beautiful version of the village.

Despite my high rating for this game, it's hard to recommend it, because the original exists still and does the same thing but better. My enjoyment solely comes from being a big fan of the Resident Evil franchise as a whole. It's a well put together product, but it misses on so many small little levels that it just pales to the original. Why is the regenerator a joke compared to the original, why is the inventory so grey, why do the new sections serve almost no purpose, where is U3, why do I feel no connection to the main villain, why is mercenaries so easy?

Ultimately I could talk a lot more about what I like and don't about this game, but it's not worth my time. This is a really a solid action horror shooter, but don't play it. Play the original and play every other RE game first. There's so much nuance that the original gets right that this doesn't. From aesthetic changes like the menus, story differences of campiness, and the gameplay changes like being able to move and shoot. Ultimately, I really wish this game was a new thing because I feel it suffers from trying to be RE4 number 3 (Village was RE4 number 2 but at least it had an identity). In trying to be the same but different, it just feels alienating.